


Enter the Darkness

by Shianhygge



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Memory Loss, Mentions of Other KH Characters, Minor Spoilers, Minor Violence, Spoilers for Kingdom Hearts 3, The Final World, building on a relationship, not romancey yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 07:15:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17699990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shianhygge/pseuds/Shianhygge
Summary: There was a purpose to your entrapment, but as the time went by, so too did your memory of that purpose. You weren't content to simply guide the lost hearts, but you couldn't leave. And then he arrived... Vanitas.Vanitas/ReaderMay be turned into a story sometime in the future.





	Enter the Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> AN: I just wanted to write something for my edgelord trash son. He needs some loving, too.

You’d been watching over this plane of existence for as long as you could remember. Long ago, you would have said that you were trapped here against your will, with only the Lost Ones to keep you company. Long ago, you were so sure of your identity, who you were. Now, it’s a struggle to remember even the most basic details regarding your identity. Your name… well, you’re sure that at least ten people still remember your name, but you’re surprisingly now one of them. You maintain a form, or at least a form of what you think you should look like… and you repeat names.

“Ava, Ira, Aced, Gula, Invi, Luxu, Ephemer, Skuld, Lauriam, Ventus…” you recite these names like a prayer upon your lips, though the faces never seem to appear. It is what you do to pass the time until another arrives from the other realm for either you or Chirithy to guide.

* * *

Sometimes, the ones that arrive end up stranded, having lost their form. Other times, they come and go. Rarely does one ever come back.

* * *

Then, one day, a boy appeared in your world, dressed in all dark colors. Your heart told you that the colors are black, red, and purple. It also screamed for you to cast him away. For in a realm where there was only the bright sky reflected everywhere, someone of the darkness did not belong. For whatever reason, you didn’t listen to the feeling of wrong, and began to approach the boy.

He felt familiar, laying there and recovering from the sudden arrival to that realm, and he was unlike the others, arriving fully formed rather than fragmented or lacking. At the time, you wondered if the boy was one of the few whose names you knew. Your heart, despite its apparent shunning of the darkness, called out to his longingly, as if in recognition of an invisible bond. But nothing called back.

Puzzled, you knelt close to him, peering down at his face and marveling at the soft looking locks that framed it. The darkness within him was all-consuming, but he did indeed have a heart. Reaching out, you went to brush a few strands of hair out of his face, only for a hand to fly up and stop you.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the boy’s eyes opened almost lazily to set an acidic glare upon you. The grip upon your wrist tightened from your silence, and suddenly, you found yourself upon the floor, gazing up into beautiful golden eyes. “Hey! I asked you a question.” The boy growled, and suddenly, you noticed the hand wrapped around your neck.

Despite all the pressure that the boy placed on your neck, you paid it little mind. Pain existed. Pleasure existed. But you couldn’t die when you were already dead. So, you smiled pleasantly, “Pleased to see that you’re relatively okay.”

Dark brows furrowed, and the boy glowered above you, “Are you stupid or something?”

“No, I assure you that I am not stupid.” You spoke with a pleasant tone, “Though I would appreciate that you stop trying to choke me out. It won’t work on me.”

“Where am I, then? Answer and I might let you go.” Though he’d changed his question, you lightly pouted at the increase of pressure around your neck.

“They call it the Final World.” You confessed, gasping when the grip suddenly lifted from you neck, though you remained woefully pinned to the floor.

“Who’s ‘they’?” the boy seemed unbothered with your position, but you were, scrambling to sit up. Scowling, the boy roughly shoved you back into place, “I said that I might let you go. Not that I would. Now answer me!”

Try as you might to maintain the pleasant demeanor from before, you weren’t able to stop from shooting your own glare at the boy above you. “They are the Lost Ones. Those of us who reside on this plane. Us who linger because we are bound by something in the Realm of Light.”

After taking a glance around, and flinching from how bright the world was, the boy glared down at you again, his hair dancing from his sudden movements. “We seem to be the only ones here.” And you could hear the accusation that went unsaid. He thought you were lying.

“Most who reside here have lost their bodies and only exist as fragments of memories or hearts. Those who arrive whole have died with both heart and body intact, but are bound here by unfinished business or desires.” The explanation quickly left your mouth, though you hesitated to mention that arriving whole usually meant that the individual was improperly placed.

“So there is a way out?”

To you, it was not strange for that question to be asked upon minutes after meeting a new person. They never wanted to stay, and you couldn’t blame them, neither did you. But not many were able to find their way back to the Realm of Light. “There is, but I don’t know how.”

The weight left your chest for only a moment as the boy stood, but was soon replaced by the edge of a blade, held up in a threat to strike. “Then you’re of no use to me. Goodbye.”

You knew that you couldn’t die, but as the Keyblade descended, you reacted instinctively, bringing your own hands up to block. A bright light flashed between the two of you, and you were forced to parry, rolling backwards to a stand, a Keyblade also in hand.

The sight of your Keyblade brought an excited and amused grin to the boy’s face, making him look somewhat manic despite the peaceful expression he had previously. You were loath to admit that the grin had you unnerved, but you shifted your stance to one that felt natural for defense. You would defend yourself if you had to, even if you might have known the boy in another life.

“Oh ho! A Keyblade wielder. What a surprise.” The boy sneered and pointed at you, “So it looks like I don’t have to be gentle with you after all.”

“As if you were going to strike me down, gently.” You scoffed, focusing on evaluating how strong the boy was.

You could feel the darkness within him struggling to break free, but the world would not allow it. Only the light seemed to prevail in the Final World, and darkness had no place. Why then, was the boy consumed by it? You glanced down at your hand and frowned. You didn’t like looking into people’s hearts, but Chirithy said that darkness was born from suffering. And it made you wonder… how much was the boy suffering to have been host to such an immense amount of darkness?

Making up your mind, you readied yourself for the boy’s onslaught of attacks. “One touch.” You muttered to yourself, dodge rolling to the side after a successful parry. After regaining your bearings, you lunged forward to meet the boy head on, locking blades for a brief moment before giving way, ducking just in time to avoid a strike meant for your head. Kicking out with your right leg, you sent the boy staggering back, creating the opening that you needed. Surging forward, you reached out with your empty hand and called upon your heart’s strength, sending you diving into the boy’s heart.

* * *

The world seemed to fade to black before everything came back into focus. You expected to find an illuminated platform below, or even a piece of some location you probably would never visit, just like with the hearts of many others. Instead, you sank into the dark abyss, suddenly overwhelmed with emotions wanting to tug you astray. Below you stood a shattered platform, displaying the boy sleeping and surrounded in red. It would have been a sight had the other half of the platform not been missing, the edges sharp and jagged, as if torn forcefully.

“What could have done such a horrible thing to the boy’s heart?” you wondered, voice touched with horror, and your hand raised to rest protectively over your chest.

And when your feet touched the broken flat, you were suddenly hit full force with what you now realized were negative emotions. Never before had you felt such sadness, anger, jealousy, bitterness, and loneliness in a single person. It was as if he’d never felt any positive emotion in his life, and the force of the darkness in his heart threatened to drag you down, too.

Weary, you watched as the darkness crept at the corners of the platform before slithering towards you. You expected the Heartless to form, as they usually did when they snuck into the hearts trapped in the Final World, but found that the shadows combined until they took the form of the very boy you were trying to understand. Once fully formed, the boy glowered at you in fury.

“Who do you think you are, barging in here like this.” And being in heart, you felt the fury and outrage from your intrusion. But underneath those stronger emotions, you felt the small bit of insecurity.

You were hit with shame at having intruded, but the moment passed when the negative emotions thickened enough to smother you. The boy before you had lived in suffering and died in suffering, and the thought brought tears to your eyes, chest squeezing painfully. “There’s so much darkness.” You sobbed, staring at the boy pitifully. “So much pain. So much sadness.”

The boy, Vanitas (the darkness around you seemed to scream his name), sneered, looking down his nose as if you were an insignificant bug. “I am darkness, and it gives me strength.”

“No.” You shook your head, lamenting. “It is pain from being alone. Jealousy and bitterness so thick that the darkness in your heart festers. It’s not strength. It’s poison.”

The gold eyes that you admired stared back at you in denial as the boy schooled his face. “Get out.”

“You have a heart, so there has to be some good-”

“I said, GET OUT.”

You gasped as the darkness came to life once more to smother you, and closed your eyes, willing yourself away. When next you opened your eyes, you were back to standing in the Final World, expanses of clear sky lighting the world as the boy ran off into the distance.

Baffled at the boy’s sudden retreat, you frowned and scratched at the back of your head. While it was mean of the boy to have attacked you, you had a feeling that you’d done something wrong by diving into his heart. The Final World was deceptive in its size, seeming much bigger than it actually was, so you would see Vanitas again. But until then, you would ask Chirithy what it was that you did wrong.

“I guess I’m in for another scolding.” You muttered, turning on your heel and dissolving in a shower of light to find your friend. “I hope I meet him again… Vanitas.”


End file.
